DH, high prescription and new glasses that are too thick

[Rollergirl11]

DH has very bad eyesight, his prescription is -9.5 in both eyes. For one reason or another he has not owned a pair of glasses for the entire time I’ve known him. So 20+ years. He wears daily disposable lenses but recently had a burst blood vessel in his eye that made wearing contacts uncomfortable and has prompted him to finally get some glasses. He picked them up yesterday and he absolutely hates them as the lenses are sooo thick. He says that they said they are the thinnest he could have them. I wasn’t with him so I’m not sure what amount of “thinning” that he went for. But my daughter has -6.5 prescription and we paid to have her glasses thinned as much as we could and they look absolutely fine. DH’s have that coke bottle effect and the lenses are so thick that from the side they protrude very far out from the frames.

The upshot is that DH says that he won’t wear them other than at home as he hates how they distort his face. This totally defeats the purpose of getting them as he as planning to wear them instead of contacts some days. They were £500+ and I think I that’s a ridiculous amount for him to pay and not be happy with them. Is there anything we can do at this point? Can we ask the optician to return the glasses and make the lenses thinner? Is this even possible or is it because his prescription is so high?

I pay for as much thinning as possible but they're still super thick and distort my features, just the way it is with v high prescriptions

Get them to email him a copy of the prescription and receipt for what he’s got , very stupid of him to throw things away so quickly .

There could have been a mistake...

He didn't request the thinnest

The opticians accidentally placed the order incorrectly (happened to us)

The lab made a mistake and didn't thin to level paid for.

Ace & Tate. They thin the lenses at no extra cost. My prescription is -7 and my lenses are twice thinned - would have cost hundreds in bloody Specsavers but was £89.

Dd has -12, I’m-10.

We always go to specsavers and have had to use the money back, no quibble policy for this issue before. We always pay for the thinnest thinning level but as others have said the frame can make a difference. Not just the size, but the shape and also where the centre of the lens is in relation to the frame.

We tend not to have a choice in frame, Dd especially. The optician will be like, this is the best/only suitable frame we have, sometimes a choice of 2. We’ve learnt to listen to them not go with something she actually wants!

These are my -10, so a bit sticking out but not awful. Think these cost me £130 ish inc thinning. I barter them like mad as I ask for discount rather than the buy one, get one free.

i have similar frames and a higher prescription i go for the thinnest they can get which loks aoujt the same

the larger the frame te worse it will look but they can only go so thin

I have a higher prescription than your dh and pay less than he did for 2 pairs of glasses at specsavers, I have plastic frames and you cannot are the lens at all from the top or side, my thinning is the highest they do.
They were great with their advice too which helped.
Go back and explain your not happy.

I was 13.5 before having cataract surgery. I generally had a “choice “ of 1 frame . Nothing fashionable. My lenses were thinned to the max but still very thick at the edges. I think you have to trust the optician on this and if you don’t then worth trying somewhere else for a second opinion.

That should be - 13.5 !!

sorry looking again mine look slightly thinner so good that hes going back for another look

it wont be really thin though whatever the outcome

I am -9.50 both eyes and get mine from specsavers with the highest level of thinning and you can barely see the edges (I have a plastic Karen Millen frame). It doesn’t look like they’ve been thinned to that level at all!

I still hate my glasses by the way. If you have a high prescription they make your eyes look tiny. It’s horrible I do wear them though because often I can’t wear my contacts due to Sjorgens (dry eye) problems.

Don't let him back down OP. Convince him to hold firm.

I can imagine if you have been used to contact lenses, glasses and the refractive edge effect must feel very weird. I had some bad varifocals from Specsavers that gave that effect. I have expensive lenses (Essilor) reglazed into my older, decent frames these days.

I might be wrong but the higher index (i.e. thinning) lenses I think are more prone to the refraction at the edges, it's kind of a price you pay for the lighter weight.

I'm not sure about the refraction at the edges thing being worse with more thinning, my current pair are the thinnest I've ever had (-12 monovision) and the difference between the peripheral vision from my previous pair (not as thin) is staggering, they are so, so much better. Nothing like as good as contact lenses mind you.

Well based on the conversation, hopefully they can sort something out. With strong prescriptions you need small frames as you look at them from the front and thick frames as you look at them from the side, if that makes sense.

I was once told a fairly thin wire frame would be suitable, and despite thinning, when viewed from the side, the lens was both sides of the frame and in total about four times the width. I hated them, used to keep my hair pulled forwards to hide them. It was ridiculous. Next pair I bought were a more expensive thicker plastic pair and they were much better.

They certainly don't look like 1.74, more like bog standard 1.5. Can happen, I got some from D and A years ago and they hadn't thinned them, didn't even take them out of the case ( don't think my arm would have been strong enough anyway).
Definitely go back, no opticians wants an unhappy customer!

Why am I not surprised it's Leightons? Oh yes, they once did a poor job for me. Wrong prescription and told me it would take a week to get used to them. Have a high prescription and varifocals and had never previously had an issue. They remade them with an adjusted prescription and when I arrived to collect the second pair told me they were unable to deal with me for an hour and twenty minutes and suggested I go and look round the shops. The bill was £800 plus and they provided a refund. Back to old optician (We had moved house). Collected new specs £667 and perfect from the get go.

Wow, would definitely push to get them changed. Good to hear the optician had some concerns about them and so they should have.

I can echo how great Asda opticians are for people with high prescriptions. And the fitting was top notch as well...

My prescription is very similar, I have to have quite chunky frames as even if I have them thinned by 90% they are still visible at the sides, I'd try another optician, I used to use an independent one and moved to spec savers for the extra choice in frames, at my first appointment with spec savers I was advised that such a high prescription means I can benefit from a NHS voucher towards the cost, its not much about £15 every 2 years but better than nothing I guess, I am trying not to wear my contacts so often anymore as they can prevent oxygen to the eyes but definitely preferred the choice from specsavers over the independent one.
Are the frames he's chosen quite thin? Plastic frames are better too for me as generally chunkier, I know a lot of men prefer the slimmer frames though, I also find a coloured frame can help with not noticing the sides too much not rainbow obviously but mine are a sort of deep purple colour.
Hope you can find some he likes.

The frame is not suitable for the prescription, he needs smaller round glasses, but still needs to go for a full frame in plastic to try and hide the edge thickness. I work in an opticians and would never give the ones you have shown to a patient. Looking at your picture I do not believe the lenses are a 1.74 thin lens. Take them back, say they are not fit for purpose. If the optician is any thing like decent they would never have attempted that prescription in that frame.